


Dead Zone

by Skittles_and_Secrets



Series: The Hurricane [2]
Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Adults, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Explicit Language, Fake Science Made Up by a High School Senior, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Mild Gore, Other, Post-Canon, Post-High School, Post-Squip Jeremy Heere, Post-Squip Rich Goranski, Superheroes, mature language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25062274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skittles_and_Secrets/pseuds/Skittles_and_Secrets
Summary: 5 years after Madeline's attack and all the chaos that ensued, Michael is living in Brooklyn. He's safe, working a reasonable desk job, living in a reasonable apartment, living a monotonous but reasonable life. But all good things must come to an end. After a couple of old friends show up, monotony might not be an option for Michael.On Hiatus
Relationships: Jake Dillinger/Rich Goranski, Jeremy Heere/Michael Mell
Series: The Hurricane [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1558606
Kudos: 7





	Dead Zone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short Chapter, mostly just an introduction. You might already be able to guess at the plot from the Epilogue, but hopefully, I'll be able to throw in enough twists to keep you on your toes.
> 
> If you haven't read The Hurricane, you really should before reading this.

The New York air was hot as I stepped outside of my office building. It was almost 100 degrees, and I had been dying in the heat all day. All I wanted was to get home and curl up in my air-conditioned apartment with my boyfriend. 

I didn’t get more than a block before a crowd of people began running toward me. Well, not towards  _ me _ , but in my direction. And the reason why soon became apparent.

There were several flashes of light and a loud BOOM from an explosion. The Photon must be fighting some Enhanced. 

There had been a resurgence of Enhanced attacks in the city for the past few weeks. None of the Enhanced were particularly in control of their powers, so Mr. Reyes didn’t have trouble getting rid of them. Still, there was an attack almost every other day.

I would have to walk in the direction of the fight to get home anyway, so I decided to see if the Photon needed help. 

He was standing on top of a building sending flashes of light to blind the enemy Enhanced. The other Enhanced was setting things on fire. It’d be more accurate to say he was  _ trying  _ to set things on fire. But he wasn’t having much luck.

The Pyro wannabe was not able to sustain a flame for more than a second. He was barely getting a spark, like a lighter out of butane. Plenty of things were on fire, so he’d clearly been successful before. He was just not able to do it now.

The Photon sent another blast of light and in an instant, the Enhanced was gone leaving just me and Mr. Reyes standing on an empty street.

I stepped into an alley and in a flash, Mr. Reyes was standing next to me, out of costume. 

“You walking home?” He asked, nodding at my work bag.

“Yeah. This guy was just like the others, right? I mean, the disappearing act is new, but he came out of nowhere, caused damage, got attention, and then was done,” I said.

He nodded. “He was the same age as the others too. Roughly, at least. I don’t think I’m going to get any answers today, but I’ll poke around some. How’s work?”

I’d been a biomedical engineer at one of the most innovative companies in the world for several months. LIVE gave engineers jobs straight out of undergrad and paid for them to get Master’s degrees, which was the program I was using. 

“It’s okay. Air-condition is still broken, and they’re gonna pull names out of a hat to see who has to fix it.”

Mr. Reyes and I had been talking pretty much every day since I moved to NYC. He’d become a pretty large figure in Jeremy’s and my lives after graduation and even helped Jeremy find a couple auditions. He felt bad that he didn’t know how to help with my job all that much, so he asked questions and got filled in with all the menial details of my life.

“The building manager won’t pay? That’s cruel. Should be illegal.”

I laughed.

“They’ll never regulate something that doesn’t directly affect consumers. Besides, not having a building manager that cares keeps rent cheap, which means I get a higher paycheck,” I said.

“You just occasionally have to do something dangerous that you weren’t trained for.”

I snorted.

“We’re all engineers. It’s not like we are clueless. Besides, how dangerous can an air-conditioning machine be?” I glanced at my watch. “Sorry, Mr. Reyes, I have to get home so I turn in an assignment for class.”

He patted me on the back.

“I’ll tell you if I find anything strange. And.” he looked at me sternly. “How many times do I have to tell you to call me John?” 

“Ok Mr. Reyes,” I called over my shoulder as I rushed home. 

Between picking up extra credits as an undergrad and taking a summer semester, I was most of the way to being finished with my degree. I’d be done at the end of the fall semester. 

I only had a few classes and they largely didn’t meet in person. Only one met on Columbia’s campus on Sundays.

“Hey, Mikey.” Jer greeted me at the door. “How was work?”

Being an adult was boring. Work literally never changed, so my answer to 80% of questions didn’t change either. 

“Work was fine. How was your audition?” I asked, kissing him on the cheek.

“Uh... They made it pretty clear I wasn’t what they were looking for. But it’s okay! Christine found a duet audition for next week! They want two people that work well together so they don’t have to do as many chemistry readings.”

“That’s good. You didn’t really want to be in a jukebox musical, especially one that’s gonna close after less than a month of shows, right?”

He laughed and rolled his eyes.

“It probably wouldn’t close that fast. But yeah, the musical Christine found sounds much more interesting.”

I started working on my assignment for class while he described the musical to me. It was a Shakespearian tragedy turned into a musical. It would be fun to watch, but I doubted it was gonna go beyond off-off broadway. Jeremy agreed, but it’d be a little extra money.

Not that we needed it. We had enough coming in from my job for two people to more than survive in our small one-bedroom apartment. 

I’d just hit the submit button on my problem set when I got a call from Mr. Reyes.

“Hey, John,” I said as I picked up, “Is this about the Enhanced from earlier?” 

“Sort of. I got a call from one of my friends in the FBI. There was a mass breakout at the prison. There’s a bunch of really sketchy missing person cases that could be involved. Hang on, I’ll send you a list of escapees.” 

The list was long, but a few names stood out to me: Jenna Rolan, Chloe Valentine, Dustin Kropp, Tanner Williams, and Madeline. There were more names, but The Pyro and Debby Heere were not marked as escaped. 

He also sent me the list of missing people, none of whom I recognized. 

“This is pretty weird. I’ll be on the lookout, let me know if The Photon needs back up,” I said before hanging up.

Jeremy closed my laptop and put it on the ground. 

“Is there a problem, Mikey?” he asked, resting his head on my shoulder.

“Yeah, but I can’t do anything about it tonight.”

He smiled and kissed me before standing up and pulling us both into our bedroom.

I was starting to feel like Dawn from _ Waitress _ , but I really liked how most of my days looked exactly the same. In the morning, I made my coffee with a splash of milk and two Splenda packets and I got my bagel from my usual shop. The same way I did every morning. I got to work at 8:10 and made it to my desk by 8:12. Before 9, I had finished my work for the day and started working on proposals due later in the month. Like usual.

It was boring, but it was relaxed. After most of my life being definitively not boring or relaxed, it was a nice change of pace. I was bored, but there are worse things to be in life. 

Still, I wanted something a little interesting to happen to me.

So when my boss put all our names in a hat to see who would fix the air conditioner, I didn’t complain after being called. I just grabbed the tool kit and made my way to the building’s basement.

In large manhattan skyscrapers, the A/C is not something to fuck around with. All A/C units can kill you, but the ones in manhattan  _ want _ to. Luckily, I lived and worked in Brooklyn, where you still shouldn’t be lax around A/c units, but at least they weren’t out for blood. 

From the rattling noise the unit had made before it died, I was going to guess that something was up with the main fan. 

When I opened the door, I was hit with a blast of cold. The room was very dark and covered with a highly suspicious amount of ice. 

My immediate thought was Chloe. I was certain for about five seconds that there was no other way for ice to have gotten into this room. 

Then I remembered what Air Conditioners were supposed to do (cool things down) and I calmed down. Maybe I was overly excited for something interesting. 

The amount of ice was still strange. If it was this cold down here, the rest of the building shouldn’t be a thousand degrees. Something was clearly wrong, and it probably wasn’t the fan. 

After a quick visual inspection, the issue was clear. The ducts leading upstairs had been broken off and sealed shut. The machine its self also had large blockages in its vents. We hadn’t had an earthquake recently, so that left only one option. Sabotage.

Maybe I shouldn’t have ruled Chloe out so quickly.

The door slammed behind me.

“I’m sorry about you A/C,” A familiar voice said, “I didn’t have much of a choice. I need to talk to you.”

I took a deep breath and braced myself. There wasn’t a good way to get myself out of this situation.

“What do you want Jenna.”

She sighed in relief.

“Chloe’s escaped from prison.”

I snorted. 

“Clearly. I’m not that dumb,” I said, my voice hard.

“Right.” She looked like she was at a loss for words. I felt bad for snapping at her. “She, and Madeline, and Dustin, and maybe Tanner too, have a plan. They’re turning people Enhanced. They’re setting them loose on not just New York but LA, DC, and Chicago too. They kidnapped a bunch of grad students and are giving them powers to defeat the superheroes stationed at different cities.”

My jaw dropped. That’d explain all the weird Enhanced attacks.

“I’m retired. I don’t see how I can help.”

Jenna shrugged.

“I’m not sure you can either, but they’re using your blood to do this.”

I Sighed.

“Well fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment any suggestions, Predictions, Questions, Criticisms, or just plain comments <3
> 
> Question of the Chapter: What is the smallest fandom you're a part of? 
> 
> for me, it's probably a 2015 musical: Brooklynite. The cast recorded three songs (there are bootlegs of the other songs) and there are virtually no fanfics for it anywhere. There isn't even an official summary. 
> 
> I'm probably going to write a crossover between it and BMC one of these days because I only have the motivation to write superhero stories.


End file.
